Kelly

We just returned home from Greece and took Olympic Airways. We were very unhappy with them--we found the attendants to be very rude and unfriendly. Additionally, there were no headphones on the ride there OR back, so unless you brought your own (that happened to be compatible with the system), you were unable to watch the movies. This was a big deal to us as it's a long flight and we're unable to sleep on the plane. Also, no choice was given for the meal--it was fish or nothing. Aren't some people allergic to fish?!?! Finally, when the captain announced that there was to be no smoking due to US regulations prohibiting smoking on all flights to/from the US, the flight attendant scoffed and was smoking in the back of the plane or the lavatory anyway! I was wondering if anyone else had a similar experience? <BR> <BR>

tom

I have heard so many bad things, there's no way I would take Olympic, ever. The Greek psychology & attitude being what it is, I would avoid as much Greek-run transport as possible, from a safety & comfort standpoint. <BR> <BR>Recently there was a news article, regarding Olympic being sued & fined $700,000 for a wrongful death lawsuit, in the USA. A passenger (an American-Egyptian, I believe) suffering from emphysema, actually died shortly after flying Olympic. <BR> <BR>He had asked for no smoking section (due to his illness). Olympic put him 1 row away from smokers (yeah, right ... smoke stops at the invisible wall between sections). <BR> <BR>When the victim asked to be moved, the flight attendant (per the court record) told him "go find it yourself", and refused to assist the man in any way. The man had an attack & died shortly after. <BR> <BR>Screw Olympic. If it weren't for government subsidies they'd shrivel up & blow away. <BR> <BR>Alitalia is another carrier I'd avoid due to smoking being permitted. <BR> <BR>Incidentally. when I was in Greece last month there was a big deal (not in the Greek press, but in the Herald Tribune) about a Flying Dolphin hydrofoil that caught fire .. fortunately no one died or was seriously hurt. <BR> <BR>Subsequent investigation turned up that many Dolphin captains & crews were not informing passengers of safety procedures upon boarding, that many captains were not up to date on regulations, & that some boats' safety equipment was missing or inoperable. <BR> <BR>Makes you wonder what their high taxes & bloated government beuracracy goes for ... it sure isn't infrastructure.

ct

Kelly: I was afraid to read your post when I saw it was about Olympic Airlines.My husband and I have the misfortune of flying with them next Saturday out of Toronto to Athens. I take it you left from somewhere in the US. What type of plane were you on? We will be on an airbus 340 which supposedly is a new plane. Hopefully that might make the difference between getting headsets or not. As far as the meal is concerned you've convinced me to pack a lunch.

kelly

CT, <BR> <BR>Sorry to disappoint you but it was a new Airbus we flew as well. I don't know what type of headphones it takes, but my experience has been that sometimes standard "walkman" headphones fit, so maybe you should try bringing your own. The movies were still playing, you just couldn't listen to them without the headphones. My advice--bring lots of reading material!

Thyra

Kelly thanks for your posting, I've heard a dozen horror stories of Olympic. We are leaving for Greece next month, on Virgin Atlantic, but we are taking Olympic,(the only option) to fly to and from some of the islands. Luckily these are short flights but keep your fingers crossed. I read somewhere that Greece has the highest percentage of smokers in all the EC. I feel bad for people with asthma.

kelly

Thyra--If you've never flown Virgin Atlantic before you're in for a treat. I flew them 5 yrs ago and if nothing has changed you'll love it too. They treat everyone as if they're in first class. Enjoy! <BR>

Patrick

IŽd never even think of taking Olympic overseas. We flew them from Athens to Chania, in Crete. We all waited for our luggage in the airport at Chania and finally they made an announcement. It seems they forgot to load all the luggage in Athens. We all had to go fill out forms and wait till that night when they might deliver the luggage. We drove back in the evening when the next flight arrived and retrieved our own luggage.

Bill Barr

Due to my job I travel regularly to Greece from the UK and I fly Olympic. <BR> <BR>Perhaps I've been lucky but so far there hasn't been a problem. <BR> <BR>I have a number of choices of course such as BA, KLM, Sabena or Virgin and have flown them all on that route. I always return to Olympic though as I find their arrival and departures into and out of Athens tend to be much more on time than any of the others. Maybe as the national airline they get priority. <BR> <BR>I have found Olympic crews formal rather than friendly. That isn't a criticism as it's the very nature of the customer service industry in Greece and I'm used to that. Personally, I've never seen any rudeness from crew. <BR> <BR>Their food I've found to be absolutely fine and better than some other airlines I've flown out of Athens with e.g. Sabena. <BR> <BR>Olympic also has one of the best safety records and I read somewhere (perhaps on this board) that each of their pilots are ex-Greek airforce. <BR> <BR>Thyra, I occasionally have to connect at Athens onto one of the internal flights (will be doing so again Sunday 17th Sept). Much smaller aircraft of course but for me, that's a lot more fun than a 757 or Airbus! If you have any questions about the internal network etc. email me and I'll try and help. <BR> <BR>Bill <BR>

caitlin h

Well, we flew from Sydney Australia to Athens last Monday. <BR> <BR>Pretty much everything that Kelly said is I'm afraid true. <BR> <BR>To be honest I already had low expectations anyway as I have previously heard bad reports about Olympic, but it was the only flight available at the time. I read Kelly's post the morning before we flew, so was almost amused when the anouncement came over the PA that headphones would not be availale on the flight! <BR> <BR>Still 20 hours without anything to amuse you is a long flight! It was I presume the airbus, as it was certainly very new (the leg space is very cramped) - I was initially very impressed with the little personal LCD screens on the back of each seat with 5 video channels, but other than the Greek documentary on Meteora with English subtitles, they served very little use without sound. It seems that Olympic must have run out of money to buy the optional extra headsets on this plane!! I almost wonder why they bothered spending the money on showing the movies!? <BR> <BR>The food though was actually very nice I thought (though the choice of meal was not avaiable by the time they got to our row)- though more so on the leg ot of Sydney than out of Bangkok, so it may be a sign of the port rather than the airline. The stewards were not particularly chirpy, but again I wasn't expecting much really and I didn't find them especially rude. <BR> <BR>By the way - we were connecting to a domestic Olympic flight in Athens to go to Santorini - and that was to be a 5 hour wait. On reassessment the ferry may have been a better idea, as once we got there (on time in fact) the local flight was 2 hours late for an unexplained reason.. 7 hours in Athens airport is not fun, and certainly didn't save us any time on the ferry. <BR> <BR>Santorini though was wonderful - that will be a seperate post. <BR> <BR>Caitlin

Art

I seem to be the only dissenter, but I flew Olympic airlines to Athans from New Youk 2 years ago and had a great flight. The food was excellent and the personnal pleasent. The arrival was on time. The only downside was that they do have smoking sections, which means that you can smell it all through the plane. <BR>

Martha

I also had a pleasant experience on Olympic Airways. I flew from JFK to Athens and then to several islands this past June and did not have a problem. I liked the airbus from JFK to Athens and back, which had individual monitors for each seat, so you could choose from several movies or documentaries to watch. The food wasn't great but what airline food is? <BR>Martha <BR>

Mary

I have to put my 2 cents in because my husband and I think Olympic is great. <BR> <BR>We were scheduled to fly United from Kansas City to Chicago and then catch Lufthansa (they CODE-SHARE with United) from Chicago to Athens via Frankfurt. Well, United made us miss our Lufthansa flight and being August there was NO way we were going to get on another Lufthansa flight. The United Customer Service desk had a line a mile long (no exaggeration here either!) and it was LUFTHANSA that found us seats on Air France to Paris and then OLYMPIC to Athens. <BR> <BR>Of course, our luggage didn't find take the same trip we did. We begged, pleaded, argued, bitched, (and would have flogged) at United, who I felt was responsible, for the luggage and flight situation. They were ABSOLUTELY NO help. <BR> <BR>Upon arrival in Paris, it was OLYMPIC that assisted us and eased our minds with the news the luggage WAS on the same trip as us (continue reading -- it gets better!). <BR> <BR>Well, we finally get to Athens (yes, we were late leaving Paris, but big deal -- the whole trip was like this starting off!), and there's no luggage. We filed a claim with Olympic for 2 roller bags (carry-on with wheels) and asked about necessities for overnight since we didn't know when the luggage would show up. We had another carry-on we packed just for this possible occurrence and Olympic paid us 50,000 drachmas (about $140) to purchase whatever we needed. We were shocked and impressed. <BR> <BR>Our luggage showed up the next morning on....Lufthansa. Again, Olympic assisted us. <BR> <BR>We flew them again from Athens to Cairo and back AND from Athens to Santorini and back. <BR> <BR>Every flight was pleasant, the food was good and Olympic really made a good impression on us. Out of the 5 airlines we flew on during our vacation, Olympic was the best. <BR> <BR>Now, who wants to hear about Egypt Air?! =( =( =(

JANE

Well, I know I am very proGreek anyway, but I was dismayed to see the start of this correspondence from Tom. It was supposed to be about Olympic Airways and turned into an assault on the Greek people and government. <BR> <BR>Me, from good old UK!!!, prefer the Greek taxes and beaurocracy anyday to the English ones. And, we live in Greece half the year and we too heard about the hydrofoil incident in the Greek press (does Tom read Greek too, he must have missed it then). They were reporting it very truthfully and it was only a couple of people who made the allegations of not being told etc. We travelled on Minoan hydrofoils and all safety procedures etc were in place and informed to us. <BR> <BR>I agree Olympic staff sometimes leave a lot to be desired, but not all of them are bad and personally we had a far worse flight on Virgin, when incidentally we paid extra to travel their version of business class. <BR> <BR>So, please dont tar all Greek people and businesses with the same brush as Olympic. There are far worse things, companies etc., here in England.

tom

being accused of "... assault on the Greek people and government " I find it necessary to defend my besmirched honor <BR> <BR>I'm 2nd generation greek (born in US) - I may know somewhat more about the greek psyche than the typical tourist ... there unfortunately is a kind of greek fatalism, and lack of personal accountability, toward safety in general. e.g., I saw numerous roadside memorials in Greece, but the behaviour that leads to those deaths never seems to change. <BR> <BR>Unfortunately tragedy has struck & is in the news; the ferry was owned by Minoan Flying Dolphin Line, whose operations I questioned in my 1st post above - <BR> <BR>" Greek ferry captain arrested as search resumes ... <BR> <BR>PAROS, Greece -- Authorities in Greece have arrested the captain and four crew members of a ferry that sank, killing at least 66 passengers " <BR> <BR>excerpt taken from <BR> http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe...rry/index.html

jane

OK Tom, sorry about your besmirched honor! I too am of Greek origin, my fathers family came from Chios and he was born in London. I just get a bit touchy when people call the greeks! Sorry! I agree the road safety etc etc needs more attention, but on the other hand we love the laid back attitude to life in day to day matters. I must admit driving in Greece you need ten pairs of eyes and they do not seem to see danger. <BR> <BR>But, I still prefer the Greeks anyday to my English neighbours! And, sorry to say, but we travelled Minoan Lines from Venice to Patras last year and this year and the ship was excellent. Perhaps we are lucky enough to have the good more modern ships on this route. <BR> <BR>Jane

Ron

Have only flown Olympic on one trip in 1997, but made several flights (NY-Athens, Athens-Rhodos, Rhodos-Crete, Crete-Athens, Athens-NY) I can't say that I had a particularly bad experience on any of these flights. As one poster mentioned, the crew seemed more formal than freindly, but given the alternative, I'll take formal any day. The food while not gourmet was adequate. This gives me an opportunity to share a quote I say somewhere (with appologies to anyone who has experienced a true hardship during air-travel) "...your 30,000 feet in the air, moving at 300 mph. Revel in the techonological acheivment of man, sit down, shut up and eat your peanuts."

ct

I just returned from Greece this weekend and flew with Olympic to and from Athens into Toronto.We were quite pleased with the service. Even though smoking was allowed on the flight the crew made sure that it was only allowed in the designated areas. Our luggage was checked through to Mykonos from Toronto and even with our 3 hour wait in Athens for that flight it arrived with us in Mykonos. We also used Olympic for 3 interisland flights and had no problems with luggage being lost. We did experience a few short delays with the flight departures from some of the islands. Overall we were quite suprised with the service from Olympic.

Grant

Hi, <BR>I feel I have to come to the defense of Olympic and say that I have never experienced any problems despite annual trips to Athens or the Islands. What I have seen is the usually very formal and polite air-crews reacting negatively to snotty and inconsiderate passengers who have no concerns but their own needs. My experience is that if I treat the staff with courtesy it is ALWAYS reciprocated.

Rob McPhail

I agree with the last poster when he mentions inconsiderate passengers. <BR> <BR>Maybe we are expecting too much from crew. <BR> <BR>A few years ago I well remember an Olympic trip from Athens to Mykonos where two young ladies (in their early 20's and old enough to know better) sat down in the seats opposite me for the short trip to the island. I always try to sit right up there at the front of the aircraft and was surprised to see the same ladies place their feet high up on the wall separating the passengers from the cockpit. <BR> <BR>Next thing one of the air crew marched forward and standing beside them, folded her arms and gave them a true Hellenic stare. Without uttering a word their feet went back down onto the floor and to say they looked humble is putting in mildly. <BR> <BR>I've also seen on similar trips to the Greek islands rudeness to crew and one unforgettable occasion a crew member being slapped by a drunk. <BR> <BR>Maybe we all should, on occasions, look at ourselves and our expectations. <BR> <BR>Rob <BR>